Teaching and Learning

​The core guiding principle that lies at the heart of everything we do at Sidmouth College is to encourage and develop capacity to learn among all members of our community.
We believe in empowering students to take control of their own learning and their own lives so they know how to make good choices and also have the ability to thrive in a fast moving, ever changing world.

"We must remember that we are preparing our children not simply for employment… and for the contribution they can make to the common good… but for the difficult decisions they will have to make in their personal lives, in those moments when they have to take responsibility for themselves…"
Michael Morpurgo

We must nurture and encourage students to develop their capacity to learn, both independently and in collaboration with others. It is our role as educators to:

• Help students develop effective learning habits which will give them the tools, confidence and flexibility to cope in many different and difficult situations.
• Nurture students’ emotional intelligence – in other words, their ability to function effectively in social situations because they not only know and understand how to manage themselves, but are also sensitive to the needs of others.

In order to achieve these goals, we have developed key approaches to learning that are used consistently and creatively across our community which we refer to as ‘Building Learning Power’

Building learning power is about helping young people to become better learners, both in school and out. It is about creating a culture in classrooms - and in the school more widely - that systematically cultivates habits and attitudes that enable young people to face difficulty and uncertainty calmly, confidently and creatively.

Students who are more confident of their own learning ability learn faster and learn better. They concentrate more, think harder and find learning more enjoyable. They do better in their tests and external examinations.
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Students understand how learning habits have a positive impact on their learning experience. All teachers plan lessons with dual lesson objectives. There is a focus on the Learning Habits (the ‘how ‘of learning) as well as the subject content (the ‘What’ of learning).